I stopped watching TV news back in the 1990's. I should have stopped sooner.
There is a TV show on PBS that every one should see before being able to vote. It was called the military and the media, or some such, and was done back in the mid to late 1980's. I have looked for the show on YouTube but it does not appear to be out there.
The show pulled together leading "journalists" of the day with various members and ex members of government, along with serving and retired general officers and a token platoon leader in a wheel chair. The "journalists" were Dan Rather, either Brokow or Jennings, but those two were interchangeable, and a well known, non anchor woman "journalist." From government there were the leaders of the House and the Senate along with other long term Congress Critters. I think both Ford and Carter were on the panel as well. At least one of them. There were serving, or just retired, Chairman of the Joint Staff and other high level generals. There was one platoon leader who was wounded in Vietnam.
There were two main things I remember that was educational about that show.
The first was the woman "journalist" got very upset when someone said that the TV news was on par with The National Enquirer.
I had laughed at the comment and agreed. She was very offended which just goes to show how out of touch she was with her own "product."
The big lesson from this show was the following. During this time there were big issues regarding Nicaragua. The host of the show set up a scenario, with a series of questions about the US invading a fictitious country, that was NOT Nicaragua but the fake name sounded like Nicaragua.
I will just call it country X since I can't remember the fake name.
The questions were similar to the following and in this order to the "journalists."
"You have a source. A source of information who is a position to know the information and who in the past has been reliable and truthful. This source tells you that country X is going to be invaded by the US. Do you report that the US is planning on invading country X?"
All of the "journalists" said yes. The look on the face's of the officer's was "interesting."
The host changed up the question to something like this, "The source tells you that country X is going to be invaded by the US. The invasion will happen in the next day or so. Do you report that the US is planning on invading country X?"
All of the "journalists" said yes. The look on the face's of the officer's was getting more "interesting" and starting to look a bit shocked.
The host changed up the question again to something like this, "The source tells you that country X is going to be invaded by the US. The invasion will happen in the next day or so. Your reporting of the invasion will NOT stop the action. Do you report that the US is planning on invading country X?"
Again, all of the "journalists" said yes. The look on the face's of the officer's was getting more "interesting" and shocked at the answers from the "journalists."
The final question was like this, ""The source tells you that country X is going to be invaded by the US. The invasion will happen in the next day or so. Your reporting of the invasion will NOT stop the action. Reporting of the invasion will warn the opposing side and cost 10,000 US casualties. Do you report that the US is planning on invading country X?"
At this questions, most of the "journalists" started to dance and think. Except of Dan Rather. He was adamant that he would report the invasion even though it would cause a huge number of dead and wounded. The look on the face's of the officer's was total shock. They were stunned. The earlier answers were really no better and showed that the "journalists" really only cared about getting the story, and of course, the glory. Their explanations rationalizing their answers were all self serving. The general officers certainly left that show with the realization that the press was bigger problem than they had thought.
Can you imagine Walter Cronkite, sitting in England prior to D-Day, even THINKING about announcing that the invasion would happen in the next day or so?
Now, I was a bit shocked that the general officers where shocked.
If they had studied the US Civil War, they would have known of the history of "journalists" giving out information regarding the movements and plans of Union armies irregardless of the resulting body count. The general officers should not have been so shocked and surprised.
The sad thing is that "journalism" has degraded so much since the 1980s.
Later,
Dan